Lead Confidential - Latest Comments

Re: Oldie But Goodie – Pay Per Call and Local Services

Rosco Pico — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 06:36:27 -0000

It’s nice to see though an implementation like Double Positive’s that leverages the existing lead generation companies as opposed to trying to compete directly with them… this could not be further from the truth, and your latest post would appear to be poorly fact-checked. While I respect your relationship with Sean, this article is misleading, and an advertorial.

First, Double Positive’s public core business driver was being an agency for Art Institute, which ended this year, when Platform assumed the account. DP now brokers mobile click-to-calls through affiliates, which is fully automated through Ring Revenue. (check their Facebook, or blog postings) There is an IVR component built-in, and no human talking to another human, as the article would suggest.

Double Positive also competes directly with other lead generators in the space through the Ring Revenue platform, selling home service, and auto insurance calls from websites. DP being labeled a call center outsourcing business or quality control company is understandable, and not “so broad and has so many applications that wrapping one’s mind around it is difficult. There isn’t and can’t be one definition or implementation.” Really?

To position Double Positive as independent is inaccurate, and the only thing Oldie but Goodie, is the advertorial.

Re: ContactUs.com – Turn-Key Lead Gen for Small Businesses

Julia — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:31:43 -0000

Congrats, Howard! I think it's an awesome product.

Re: ContactUs.com – Turn-Key Lead Gen for Small Businesses

Jose — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:07:33 -0000

Howard, congratulations on he newco, on the product and the vision. It solves a BIG problem and I am sure this is going to scale.

Re: (Press Release) LeadPoint UK Founder and MD Nick Chapman Leaves

Mindful Marketing Strategies — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:57:56 -0000

Great marketing product for lenders (and other advertisers) to gain access to a wide audience looking for their products and services. -makeitmindful

Re: What’s In A Name? Is the Term Lead Gen Bad?

David Bratvold — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:01:32 -0000

Jay, great commentary. I agree that the term "lead" can be used negatively (I'm not sure if I would consider it positive or negative. I may be a fencewalker on this one).

It's tough when bad apples drag something through the mud that you believe in. I'm learning that about the term "sales" or "outbound sales." I think that's a purely evil term, but I'm learning to overcome it (as Stephan Schiffman thinks I should).

Do you think there's anything you & LeadsCon can do to swing the term out of the "dirty word" category?

Re: Spotlight on: Jordon Keltz

Kwtimothy — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:05:12 -0000

Background story takes credit largely for the work of someone else at ClassesUSA, who had the vision to convince Jordon and Lucciano to change their business model from selling classes online to generating leads for online universities. Without that change of focus, ClassesUSA would have gone out of business in 2002.

While Jordon forged partnerships, Timothy Foster built model of guaranteed profitability using keyword marketing, which netted initial margins of over 200% for every dollar spent. This generated the capital that saved the business and powers it to thrive. Without it, the mega-expensive banner ads on MSN never would have happened.

Of course, as so often happens in Corprare America, Foster was discharged after a relatively minor miscue, his employment agreement violated, and was basically screwed out of the just rewards for what he helped build due to petty jealousies over his growing compensation.

Foster was responsible not only for building the industry-changing marketing program, but also sold and nurtured the liens that accounted for roughly 85% of the company's revenue.

Of course, none of this is mentioned.

Re: The Fraud Paradox

John Smith — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:22:21 -0000

Fraud exists because of mis-aligned profit motives. Fraud will go away when lead buyers have better alternatives for sourcing prospects -- which happens to be buying prospects who are deeper in the consideration/shopping process.

Look for this to happen within the next 3-5 years, where more targeted, relevant offers begin to pop up that tear down information barriers and add transparency to the shopping process. Think mint, leaky/coverhound, etc. Disruption is venture capital-backed, and it's coming!

Re: Vantage Media Buys BrokersWeb

peter bordes — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:27:12 -0000

Thanks for the insightful post covering this merger. congratulations to both sides. this is a very smart combination that creates a lot of value for both companies and the industry :)

Re: BrokersWeb.com Expanding into the Auto Insurance per-Click Marketplace

Jay Weintraub — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:54:22 -0000

Thank you, Tim for the suggestion / correction.

Re: BrokersWeb.com Expanding into the Auto Insurance per-Click Marketplace

Tim — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:52:52 -0000

Suggested correction: QuinStreet is "deep into the *Health Insurance* vertical," which is quite distinct from the "Health Care" vertical.

Re: One on One Marketing Nabs Investment

Jack2358 — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:04:48 -0000

In fact, they did try to find an "exit", but they can't. The other portals they own are not doing well and lost money for them. The online education marketing is getting tougher and tougher after congress stepped in.

Re: EcoOutfitters – Is Green the Next Vertical of Lead-Gen

Raina Russo — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:06:46 -0000

Sure, no industry is perfect but if any industry can come close we can confidently say the solar industry has many good ingredients. For one, it’s been recently reported as the fastest growing in the U.S.! Reports show that in the last three years the U.S. solar industry has gone from a start-up to a major industry that is creating well-paying jobs and growing the economy in all 50 states.
And if you are worried about potential for home sales, well…The U.S. market is expected to more than double yet again in 2011, installing enough solar for more than 400,000 homes with goals to power 2 million more homes each and every year through 2015.
Absolutely the industry is in its infancy but prices are declining and the industry is maturing rapidly. We are proud to be in with the trend setters, making our mark while making a difference.

Re: EcoOutfitters – Is Green the Next Vertical of Lead-Gen

Karin Lippert — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:55:00 -0000

Solar is key for global climate change...we need innovators online and on the ground to make it work! Great news!

Re: Making News (Releases) This Week – LeadTune, MediaTrust, eBureau, and LeadSpend

Troy Jenkins — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:47:08 -0000

Jay--Ultimately, it comes down to the email address. Rescue allows for the sellers to pre-ping LeadTune to see which offers would be rejected or accepted. Hope that answers your question.

Re: Making News (Releases) This Week – LeadTune, MediaTrust, eBureau, and LeadSpend

Jay Weintraub — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:41:36 -0000

Thanks, Troy Appreciate the clarification. How do you compare the sellers compare the data against the school's?

Re: Making News (Releases) This Week – LeadTune, MediaTrust, eBureau, and LeadSpend

Troy Jenkins — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:35:17 -0000

Jay--On the LeadTune solution, we allow for schools to send us their data in a one-way, encoded hash, so no personal data is exposed between buyers and sellers . Thanks for sharing....See at LeadsCon.

Troy

Re: Facebook Flyers vs. LinkedIn Direct Ads

Jonathan R — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:34:32 -0000

Beware! Don't get caught out by the LinkedIn Ads promotions. - I recommend avoiding LinkedIn DirectAds.

Just before Christmas 2010 I got a $100 promotional coupon emailed to me by LinkedIn to try DirectAds. I had to register my credit card with them for a $5 initial charge to open the account. A few weeks later I checked to see how the ad trial was going and found that over $250 had been taken from my credit card account (in four separate transactions) as the $100 coupon amount had been used in just a few days! I had received no notification from LinkedIn of any of these charges to my credit card.

I have disputed this with LinkedIn and they say that the user agreement says they can charge the registered credit card for any amount at any time !

LinkedIn refuse to accept that the promotion was unclear about charging and they point blank refuse to refund any of the charges. In fact they took a final
$48 more after I asked for my credit card to be removed from their system. I never had any trouble like this with Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

Don't fall for the marketing hype - save your money and avoid LinkedIn Ads.

Re: Innovation Ads – Innovating No More

Swiley357 — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:40:16 -0000

I too would like to know our EIN # to be able to file it is bad enough some of us werent able to get our last pay checks now we cant file due to no w2's coming out ?? my email is swiley357@ymail.com this is stephanie wiley .. if anyone has any information please let me know , thanks

Re: Innovation Ads – Innovating No More

Jrprince44 — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:45:58 -0000

Does anyone know the EIN # for this company so we can file our taxes?

Re: What is Lead Generation?

JC Matthews — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:18:48 -0000

This was a great article! Based on this I would say I have more of a Consumer Site.

Re: New FTC Rules for Debt Relief Services Turn Up the Heat on Lead Generators and Affiliate Marketers

Ericryan1000 — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:52:08 -0000

josh,

I paid for your leads and you offer terrible service, you failed to provide me leads in a timely manor, you will not refund me for your poor service, it is very known across the mortgage forums how you have taken customers money and never provide what they are promised.

Re: One on One Marketing Nabs Investment

Mferree — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:56:19 -0000

correction - I just noticed they have a few valuable properties in other verticals that could obviously bring additional value to the company.

Re: One on One Marketing Nabs Investment

Mferree — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:23:40 -0000

Wow, this is very interesting and a little confusing, frankly. Obviously there are a number details missing from the picture, but I guess the price/numbers were right.

Regardless, this is positive news for the edu lead gen space and big congratulations to One on One.

Re: For-Profit-Education: Sector Under Siege – Regulations Recap

FJM09 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:10:33 -0000

Thank you for a very insightful description of the current state of the Market Funded Sector or the Private Sector of Education, depending on one's view. I agree with some of the approaches being considered to improve the quality output of students in this sector. It is my hope that law makers and regulators use a scalpel to design final regulations and not a machete. The impact to the under-represented population is immeasurable if the adequate controls are not considered. I know this is not the current focus of the senate. However, law makers need to evaluate the impact and value of some of our local community colleges and state colleges, some of which have, in my opinion, have unacceptable graduation rates. It would be ideal if at the end of this process, our post-secondary schools, regardless of market funded or not, yield quality graduates that will help us meet the shortage of talent.

Re: Job Opening – Blue of California – Direct Marketing Group Manager

JB — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:34:41 -0000

Jay -- can you post our 10 job openings in LA?

Jeff B